Patrik O'Brian Holt

Immersive Virtual Reality In Cable and Pipe Routing: Design Metaphors and Cognitive Ergonomics

In recent years there have been moves in industrial engineering towards greater automation through intelligent systems and this has resulted in replacing human expertise. In many cases the potential of intelligent systems has yet to be realised. This paper presents and discusses an alternative technological approach, which uses immersive virtual reality (VR) to support engineering design tasks. The approach focuses on the human engineer and acknowledges the importance of human input to the design process. The development of a metaphor based VR system is reported along with initial field trials, which compare VR with conventional CAD systems. The results show advantages of using VR over CAD and these are discussed along with strengths, weaknesses and future work. @DOI: 10.1115/1.1759696#

Situation awareness in context-aware case-based decision support

Humans naturally reuse recalled knowledge to solve problems and this includes understanding the context i.e. the information that identifies or characterizes these problems. For problems in complex and dynamic environments, providing effective solutions by operators requires their understanding of the situation of the environment together with the context. Context-aware case-based reasoning (CBR) applications uses the context of users to provide solutions to problems. The combination of a context-aware CBR with general domain knowledge has been shown to improve similarity assessment, solving domain specific problems and problems of uncertain knowledge. Whilst these CBR approaches in context awareness address problems of incomplete data and domain specific problems, future problems that are situation-dependent cannot be anticipated due to lack of the facility to predict the state of the environment. This paper builds on prior work to present an approach that combines situation awareness, context awareness, case-based reasoning, and general domain knowledge in a decision support system. In combining these concepts the architecture of this system provides the capability to handle uncertain knowledge and predict the state of the environment in order to solve specific domain problems. The paper evaluates the concepts through a trial implementation in the flow assurance control domain to predict the formation of hydrate in sub-sea oil and gas pipelines. The results show a clear improvement in both similarity assessment and problem solving prediction.

Making connections: the logical structuring of hypertext documents

The results from an experiment analysing hypertextual semantic linking is reported. In the study participants are asked to describe logical relationships between related, semi-related and unrelated paragraphs of text. It is concluded that existence and ‘themes’ of relationships are (as expected) fairly consistently recognised, however, specific relationships do not readily fall into ‘natural’ predicate like statements. Purely ‘thematic’ relationships, or a ‘palette’ of available relationships might be the more practical approach. Further work on dynamic linking in hypertext documents is also reported. Dynamic linking eliminates some of the problems associated with a mismatch between the mental models of authors and readers and allows the readers to construct their own hypertexts from linear documents. This approach offers useful data on logical connectivity in hypertext documents but also represents an alternative to conventional hypertext authoring and reading.

The cognitive benefits of dynamic representations in the acquisition of spatial navigation skills

A representational theory of the mind suggests that human experiences and activities are underpinned by mental representations. This abstract task representation paradigm may explain a cognitive benefit of dynamic instructional visualisations over static alternative in the acquisition of novel procedural motor skills. In this sequel work, we explore and extend this view through empirical investigations of novel skill acquisitions in a separate but related domain of spatial navigation. We compare the post-learning virtual maze navigational performance of sixty novel learners across two groups. After controlling for spatial orientation ability and prior video gaming experience, participants that learned the task using dynamic instructional visualisations recorded significantly better performance measures than those in the static group. Additionally, within-group comparisons also show that the beneficial advantage of dynamic instructional visualisations over statics remained consistent across different task complexities. These findings provide further evidence to support the view that dynamic instructional visualisations afford more efficient transfer of novel procedural skills through computer based training than static visualisations. This has implications for instructional design especially when rapid novel situational awareness is desired such as in briefings for emergency firefighting or tactical military operations.

User-centred design and writing tools: designing with writers, not for writers

After speech; writing is the most common form of human communication and represents the cornerstone of our ability to preserve and record information. Writing, by its very definition, requires artefacts in the form of tools to write with and a medium to write on. Throughout history these artefacts have ranged from sticks and clay tablets, feather and leather, crude pens and paper, sophisticated pens and paper, typewriters and paper, and electronic devices with or without paper. The development of writing tools has straightforward objectives:

You have e-mail, what happens next? Tracking the eyes for genre

This paper reports on an approach to the analysis of form (layout and formatting) during genre recognition recorded using eye tracking. The researchers focused on eight different types of e-mail, such as calls for papers, newsletters and spam, which were chosen to represent different genres. The study involved the collection of oculographic behavior data based on the scanpath duration and scanpath length based metric, to highlight the ways in which people view the features of genres. We found that genre analysis based on purpose and form (layout features, etc.) was an effective means of identifying the characteristics of these e-mails. The research, carried out on a group of 24 participants, highlighted their interaction and interpretation of the e-mail texts and the visual cues or features perceived. In addition, the ocular strategies of scanning and skimming, they employed for the processing of the texts by block, genre and representation were evaluated.

An Innovative Approach to Facilities Management in the Workplace Design Brief: Virtual Reality in Design

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the potential use of virtual reality systems in facilities management design solutions.Design/methodology/approach – The approach focuses on the human designer and acknowledges the importance of human input to the design process. The development of a metaphor‐based VR system is reported along with initial field trials, which compare VR with conventional CAD systems.Findings – In the context of facilities management solutions advantages of using VR over CAD are shown and discussed along with strengths, weaknesses and future work.Research limitations/implications – The literature reviewed is not exhaustive. Many concepts are mentioned and referenced but not explained fully due to space constraints. The research suggests the future use of VR systems in FM solutions.Practical implications – This paper discusses immersive virtual reality (VR) in support of building design tasks as an innovative tool, enabling more effective facilities management ...

Effect of Interface Dynamism on Learning Procedural Motor Skills

The effectiveness of dynamic versus static visualizations in computer-based training (CBT) systems has generated a lot of research effort with divergent findings. The work reported in this paper examines a novel paradigm that learning a procedural motor skill may be enhanced by instructional visualizations that optimizes the construction of mental task models. We investigated the interaction of different interface visualizations of a CBT system with the cognitive characteristics of trainees by comparing three conditions of interface dynamism in a mechanical motor skills learning task. Ninetyone participants across three treatment groups performed a disassembly motor task.After controlling for effects of spatial visualization abilities, participants who used training interfaces with dynamic information content completed the post-learning motor task faster and more accurately than those who used interfaces with a static visual content. These findings suggest that instructional interfaces having motor coordinating information, which is intrinsic to the execution of procedural motor tasks, are more suitable for CBT of novice trainees. It may also imply the possibility of a common approach to the design and implementation of CBT systems, which is independent of learner’s cognitive abilities.

Perceiving and Using Genre by Form - An Eye-Tracking Study

Abstract This paper reports on an approach to the analysis of genre recognition using eye-tracking. The researchers focused on eight different types of e-mail, such as calls for papers, newsletters and spam, which were chosen to represent different genres. The study involved the collection of oculographic behaviour data metrics, such as fixations and saccades to highlight the ways in which people view the features of genres. We found that genre analysis based on purpose and form (layout features, etc) was an effective means of identifying the characteristics of these e-mails. The research, carried out on a group of 24 participants, highlighted their interaction with the e-mail texts and the visual cues or features perceived as well as the strategies they employed for the processing of the texts. The results showed that readers can determine the purpose and form of genres, that form and content can occasionally be separable, that some features cause fixations and that some readers are prompted to respond by using saccadic behaviour (e.g. regressive saccades) over the shape of the e-mails (form).

The Cognitive Effects of Delayed Visual Feedback: Working Memory Disruption While Driving in Virtual Environments

Experiments that have been conducted using virtual reality based driving tasks in order to investigate the effects of delayed visual feedback are described. Results show that visual interference tasks and visual delays both have a similarly detrimental effect on performance. A potential explanation for the cognitive failures involved in delayed visual feedback is outlined; namely a disruption to working memory. In addition to this theoretical and experimental work a review of pertinent literature is also included along with a brief summary of our experience of using virtual reality technology in human factors experimentation.